Mary froze.
Though she had trained as a knight and faced more than her share of danger, the weight pressing down on her now was unnatural—like a mountain had settled atop her bones. Even lifting a finger felt like an impossible task.
It wasn't just fear.
No, this was something more… arcane. Something vast.
A force domain.
Only the most elite warriors could manifest such control over Force—those on the cusp of becoming Awoken. And though this man before her had not reached that mythic state, he had done the next best thing.
He had twisted the very rules of the world around him.
It wasn't like the vivid, reality-warping worlds Awoken Ones created. His domain was subtler, crueler. A place where force itself didn't flow freely—no, it all flowed toward him. Like a black hole at the center of the room, draining every ounce of power from its surroundings. Any attempt to draw upon one's strength here would lead to swift and brutal exhaustion.
